Online Communities Can Hurt Films Before Release, But Some Are Fighting Back

...The online campaign againstThe Promiseappears to have originated on sites like Incisozluk, a Turkish version of 4chan, where there were calls for users to "downvote" the film's ratings on IMDb and YouTube. A rough translation of one post: "Guys, Hollywood is filming a big movie about the so-called Armenian genocide and the trailer has already been watched 700k times. We need to do something urgently." Soon afterward, the user gleefully notedThe Promise's average IMDb rating had reached a dismaying 1.8 stars. "They know that the IMDb rating will stay with the film forever," says Esrailian. "It's a kind of censorship, really."

While the attack againstThe Promiseis an extreme case, colored by decades of fraught discussion over the Armenian genocide, it highlights a growing problem in Hollywood. A search of 4chan reveals multiple campaigns against everything fromStar WarsspinoffRogue Oneto indie Holocaust-denier dramaDenialto Justin Simien’s upcoming Netflix seriesDear White People, many with step-by-step instructions on how to negatively impact films on sites like IMDb and YouTube....